The Biggest Lie of the Green New Deal

We have now seen the end results of the self-esteem movement and the indoctrination camps of higher learning: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her Green New Deal. Equipped with deep ignorance, bolstered by overwhelming confidence, and layered over by a distinct lack of self-awareness, the freshman representative from the Bronx has produced for the world a plan that is a rare combination mind-blowing ignorance and insanity.

But in it we do catch a glimpse of the everyday stupidity being preached aggressively on campuses across the country: it’s hard to deny that in our capitalistic country, college campuses are the last bastions of failed ideologies like socialism that are taught by failed ideologues with tenure. When those ideas are brought forth from the campus cocoon into the real world, the detachment from reality is on full display.

If the Green New Deal were ever implemented in a real way, it would incinerate the U.S. economy. Ascendant competitors such as China, India, Brazil, and Russia would laugh in triumph over the smoldering ruins of what used to be the world’s greatest economic and political power.

It’s rare to see such poison proposed by an elected official who has sworn to uphold the Constitution, but this is the world in which we live: economic arsonists in Congress actually proposing ideas that would annihilate American freedom and prosperity all in the name of a globalist, quasi-religious belief in man-made global warming.

One of the great lies in the rollout of the Green New Deal was that the proposal really did not advocate paying people who were “unwilling to work.” While the final document didn’t include those words specifically, the Ocasio-Cortez’s resolution states the GND would “provide all the people of the United States with economic security.” Of course, by all people it’s assumed to include those unwilling to work.

Despite the gaslighting, what is really being proposed here is a universal basic income (UBI), a policy that as of last year some 48 percent of Americans thought would be a good idea. Some have wrongly argued that UBI could be the answer to the coming automation of the economy. It’s not the answer, but it has been discussed and even proposed by some on the Right, including Charles Murray, who has been arguing for several years now that a UBI is a solution to replacing our welfare state and revitalizing America’s ailing civic life.

All of this, however, is besides the point. The willingness to provide economic support for those unwilling to work, or the acceptance of such ideas, is not the biggest lie surrounding the Green New Deal. A short time ago, Ocasio-Cortez insisted she didn’t want Venezuelan socialism for the United States. She was seeking the smiling, Swedish sort of socialism for this country. Never mind the fact that Sweden really isn’t socialist, either, as the government doesn’t control the means of production.

Regardless of Ocasio-Cortez’s cavalier ignorance of facts, she stated very clearly that she didn’t want the ugly, brutish socialism we’ve seen destroy Venezuela. Yet the Green New Deal exposed her lies on that front. The underlying theme to the entire plan is coercion. It has to be. This Green New Deal cannot be achieved without embracing full-blown, coercive socialism.

How precisely would the United States get to “100 percent of the power demand . . . through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources” in 10 years? Coercion. How do you pay for all of these ideas? Well you coerce people—and not just the despised “1 percent”—to hand over most of their income in taxes. How do you dictate all of the madness in regards to production and pollution are adhered to? Through coercion, naturally.

There is another name for this kind of coercive socialism. It’s called Communism.

And that is precisely the underlying theme of the Green New Deal. Since the adults and sane people have apparently left the asylum known as the Democratic Party, the inmates are now running the place. As there seemingly are no sane people left inside the Party of Infanticide, many of the Democratic hopefuls for 2020, from Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) to Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) have endorsed the coercive Green New Deal. Add to the mix the schemes for Medicare for All and free college, these plans would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $52 trillion over the next 10 years. (Though the tab may be substantially higher—who knows?) All of this would be funded by draconian taxes that would turn those anyone who remains willing to work into employees of the state while everyone else would be wards of the state.

That’s the siren song of socialism, the devil’s deal: we’ll give you everything for free. You just have to give us your freedom in exchange. Let’s hope enough of the American people understand the madness being proposed. Because if they don’t, and these ideas get implemented, that’s the end of the American republic and of the American dream.

Content created by the Center for American Greatness, Inc. is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a significant audience. For licensing opportunities for our original content, please contact [email protected].